AMERICAN LEGION: BSP bats back on track in win over South Brunswick

By TONY PISCOTTA, For The Trentonian

Sunday, July 21, 2013

NORTH BRUNSWICK — They’re back.

The Broad Street Park Post 313 American Legion team struggled a bit offensively the last week of the regular season and starting pitcher Cody Astbury allowed a season-high six runs in the first threeinnings against West Windsor-Plainsboro in his final start.

Both the offense and Astbury were back on point Sunday.

BSPpounded out 14 hits and Astbury went the distance, scattering 10 hits in a 9-3 win over South Brunswick Post 401 in the District 2 tournament opener for both teams at North Brunswick’s Community Park.

“This is basically our high school team (Hamilton) and we killed the ball all year,” said John Lansing, who was 2for3 with a pair of walks and drove in two runs.

All 10 batters who went to the plate had at least one hit for Post 313 while Dave Osnato had a pair of booming doubles.

“We have confidence in everybody coming up to bat and I feel like everybody specializes in something that gets a run in; whether it’s bunting or stealing a base or just getting the fielders off guard,” Lansing said.

The three non-Hornets in the lineup got into the act as well.

Lou Potts (Florence) had a hit and a walk and scored a run, Cody Billings (Notre Dame grad) was 2for4 with a sacrifice fly, and Cole McManimon (PDS) had a two-run single in the four-run third inning that put BSP ahead to stay.

“They’ve been pretty solid all year. We know how they play.They might be overlooked but we see them on a daily basis,” Lansing said. “These kids come out, they play as hard as they can for the love of the game.”

Staked to a 4-1 lead after the third inning rally — Astbury went about doing what he does best — throwing strikes and forcing the opposing hitters to put the ball in play on his terms.

“He’s probably one of the best around at pitching with the lead,” said BSP manager Mike Petrowski. “I don’t know how many first pitch ground balls to third and how many quick innings he got. His pitch count wasn’t high.”

Astbury recorded just three strikeouts, but after giving up a long home run to South Brunswick’s Nick Veglia in the second, the Post 314 right-hander changed speeds and worked quickly — keeping his fielders in the game and avoiding any walks.

“I just tried to get ahead of batters and try to pitch my game,” who was determined to finish his first nine inning game of the season. “In the eighth inning they started warming somebody else up but I didn’t want to come out. I just went out there and kept pitching to try and stay in there.”

In the final inning South Brunswick put a pair of runners on base, but thanks to a nice third to first double play by Lansing and then a pop up for the final out he was able to do that.

“Today I think we went back to how we used to be. How we used to fight all the time and we hit a lot better than we’ve been hitting,” Astbury said. “I guess towards of the season some of the guys got tired and lazy and slacked off. But now we’re coming to a new tournament and the energy’s back up there.”